mARch: Take Virtual Field Trips with Tour Wrist

Moving into other applications of augmented reality (AR) in interventions, today I am going to talk about Tour Wrist (Free for iPhone, iPod, iPad). TourWrist is one of the most dazzling, yet simple to use AR apps, transporting you to geographic locations where professional photographers, businesses, and your average Joe have recorded and uploaded "tours."  Once you access a tour, you interact with it by moving the iPad right, left, up and down, and turning around as your viewpoint changes, giving you in many cases a 360º view of a place. The tours are naturally still photos, and are not in real time (probably a good thing), but are nonetheless very cool kid-pleasers.

This is therefore a different use of AR than what we saw with Aurasma- instead of scanning a visual material or marker to view digital information, the gyroscope in the device layers a different viewpoint according to your position, making your reality "augmented." Note that this app does work on iPad 1, but that you have to tap/drag to change the position and viewpoint, so it's not quite AR on that device.

A tip about tours: as this is essentially a marketing app, there are views of less salient stuff such as the inside of hotels, etc.  Use the menu to navigate to Points of Interest or Featured locations for better results.  From the displayed map, you can also view the label of the tour, which gives you an idea of the content. Just hit the arrow button to access the tour.


Applying the Language Lens to this app:
-Take virtual field trips to a particular location and elicit descriptive language about the viewpoint.
-Use a setting map/graphic organizer to build knowledge of story grammar elements.
-Align with classroom curriculum by accessing tours that relate to content in the classroom (50 states, landmarks, etc)
-Take a screenshot and use as a stimulus for "I was there..." writing.

And the Common Core Connection (note, this is a great app for older students):
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.9-10.5 Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.